Court tells Pangasinan town it can’t rent out town square
By Leila Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 21:17:00 03/27/2008
Filed Under: Laws, Local authorities
Editor's Note: Reposts to correct head
MANILA, Philippines -- The Court of Appeals has stopped a Pangasinan town from renting out the town square to be used as a carnival site, issuing a final writ of injunction that prohibits the local government of Mangaldan from leasing the plaza for commercial purposes.
"The public plaza may be used for other purposes such as propriety and commercial but there are requirements provided by the law. It must be through an ordinance enacted by the Sangguniang Bayan. However, the plaza cannot be the subject of a lease contract since it is outside the commerce of man," it said.
It added that Mangaldan's local government officials earlier entered into an agreement with taxpayers not to use the town square for "peryahan purposes," and this is similar to a carnival.
The Mangaldan officials passed a resolution in December 2005 allowing the mayor to enter into a contract with one Ricardo Flores for the lease, for P250,000, of the public plaza to be used as the site for carnival shows, amusement and public entertainment for the town's 2006 fiesta celebration. Included in the resolution is a provision stating that the town square would not be used for illegal gambling.
But the issuance was contested by concerned taxpayers Fernando Cabrera, Ma. Paz Serafica and Joseph Emmanuel Cera, with whom Mayor Herminio Romero, Vice Mayor Bernardo Abalos and Flores signed a January 2005 compromise wherein they said, among others, that the plaza would not be used for peryahan in succeeding years.
In its decision, the appellate court said the Sangguniang Bayan could not issue the assailed resolution because under the Local Government Code, roads and squares could only be closed via an ordinance, and only for a specified time.
It defined closure as withdrawing the plaza from public use and using it for other purposes such as designating it for entrepreneurs.
"Although the Local Government Unit is granted the power to close roads and squares which include public plazas, the said power is not without limitation. The law requires that the closure, permanently or temporarily, must be through an ordinance... The questioned resolution is thus not sufficient to close the public plaza to use it as a flea market or for other commercial purposes," it said.
The appellate court also said that since local government units can enter into contracts, its compromise with Cera was binding especially since the lower court had adopted it in a civil case.
"Thus, the Sangguniang Bayan which is still presided by... Abalos cannot issue a resolution which will violate the said decision," it said.
The Sangguniang Bayan also lacks the power to subject a plaza to a lease contract, and neither can it empower the mayor to do so, it added.
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